Daily Times

When he bulges his eye

as the orbed sun

just over the morning hill

he frightens me

and I contract

to the detumescence

of my fresher days

the Headmasters grip

lies unbroken

though carrying the cancer of time

on his crooked back

like my forgotten friend

Quasimodo

and when he smiles

I relief in toykind joy

though in distance

he appears shrunk

and I magnified

in importance

quietly posing

to hear the countless feet

of regiments of whores on the march.

The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC